EU Commission seeks to improve early-stage cancer detection

The European Commission put forward on Tuesday new recommendations to improve the early-stage detection of certain cancers.

"We all know that cancer screening saves lives. We can speak of cure following early detection in some cancers.

"We need to screen more and we need to screen better," EU Health Commissioner, Stella Kyriakides, said at a press conference in Brussels.

Breast, cervical, colorectal, lung, prostate and gastric cancer together made up 54.3 per cent of all new cancer diagnosis in the EU in 2020, according to official figures.

The commission wants to widen the age groups of women for breast and cervical cancer screening and recommended certain screening methods for breast and colorectal cancer.

Kyriakides said some 90 per cent of the EU population who qualified for breast, cervical and colorectal cancer screenings should have access to such screening by 2025.

"Today there are still unacceptable inequalities when it comes to screening," she said.

She added that screening rates in the bloc currently ranged from six per cent to 90 per cent, and there were efforts to reach vulnerable groups.

The commission also put forward screening recommendations for lung, prostate and gastric cancer.

Cancer will become the leading cause of death in the EU by 2035 without the measures, Kyriakides said.

The commission wants to make available 100 million euros (100 million dollars) to EU countries to implement the recommendations next to other funding, she said.

The proposal presented on Tuesday still needs to be approved by EU capitals.